Blackwater with compact camera tips

[Pillpusher]

I'll be doing my first blackwater dive in Kona in about a week and a half. I've read several articles about photography tips, but most of them are somewhat DSLR specific. Any tips for using a compact on these dives would be greatly appreciated!

I have a G7Xii (only my 2nd trip with it) with dual YS-D2's, and a focus light mounted on top of a Fantasea housing. I guess one of my main concerns is the lens. I have a Subsee +10, but am worried the limited working distance would render it very difficult to use on this type of dive. I'm wondering if I should just set a manual focus as far out as it'll effectively go and hope for the best, rather than depending on attempting to auto focus on mostly translucent subjects. Or, are most of the critters big enough where I wouldn't need the SubSee most often?

Like most photographers, I hate missed opportunities, so I'm just hoping to reduce my learning curve as much as possible beforehand.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bvanant]

Most of the things you want to shoot are typically a bit larger than you would need the subsee for and shooting a bit wider than super macro will get you faster focus. One thing i often do is to set the lens to manual focus about 6 inches from the port then focus on the critters by moving the camera in and out.
Have fun
Bill

 

[Pillpusher]

Most of the things you want to shoot are typically a bit larger than you would need the subsee for and shooting a bit wider than super macro will get you faster focus. One thing i often do is to set the lens to manual focus about 6 inches from the port then focus on the critters by moving the camera in and out.
Have fun
Bill

Thanks. I was kinda leaning that way since I figure trying to operate with a 2"-3" working distance in open water would be a pretty daunting task.